Thursday, October 14, 2021

Three Men and the Sea.2

 

(Second of two parts. Part one appeared here yesterday.)

As we sailed through turbulent seas in the Gulf, it was clearly going to be a long night so Graham went to sleep in order to be fresh later on when it came time to relieve Ty at the helm. I couldn’t sleep, so periodically I would open the hatch and call up to Ty. He seemed to be having the time of his life in the rough seas, laughing and whooping. Of course our running lights were on and we occasionally would pass other boats headed into shore.

Normally boats would acknowledge each other bay radio or blinking our lights as we passed,  but as we got further out in the Gulf we started to encounter boats with their lights low and no radio contact. Ty explained these were probably drug runners from Cuba bringing marijuana to Florida and the lucrative U.S. market. We knew the Coast Guard played hide and seek with these carriers of contraband so we just let them be.

As the night went on and on, the storm built toward its peak. We'd all been through many of these storms, but they normally occurred in the afternoon, not the dead of the tropical night.

That made this one disorienting. The boat tossed about on the waves like a bathtub toy, and I was a bit scared but with Ty at the controls I figured we would probably make it okay. 

It's funny but rather confronting our possible mortality I was already imaging what a good story this would be to tell later on. This happened a number of times in my life, like when someone pulled a gun on me in the streets. (That happened three times.) It must be some sort of abnormal personality disorder. Rather than experiencing rational fear, I watched myself sleepwalk through experiences, living to tell the tale later.

In any event, we all wore life vests in case we were to be swept overboard by a surge in waves. Minutes passed like days; hours like weeks. Finally the winds began to subside and the rain let up enough that Graham could take over.  Ty came below to study the maps.

“I’m afraid we were blown well off course by the storm,” he said. “So we are probably way to the south of where we should be.

That was troubling news because it meant we would be close to the territorial waters of Cuba and subject to interdiction by the Cuban authorities who didn’t take kindly to "spies"  approaching their coast. This was not very long after the disastrous U.S. invasion known as the Bay of Pigs, not to mention the Cuban Missile Crisis,  and tensions between the countries were very high.

Ty made a guess at our probable location and took the helm, turning the boat in an elegant if  hazardous maneuver to head in a direction like the long angle of an isosceles triangle that theoretically would get us back on course to Sanibel. 

Running before the wind never felt this fast before -- we were shooting over the surf like a well-crafted arrow in the night. As the hours passed, all other ship traffic seemed to have dropped away. Ty explained that this was a good thing, as we were out of the major shipping lanes and likely headed into friendlier waters.

Finally after what seemed like an interminable period of time we started glimpsing several faint lights on the shoreline. As we gingerly approached land, Ty recognized the location. It was Marco island, not Cuba.

By then the weather was calming and we just had slow steady waves that were easy to navigate. I took a turn at the helm as we hugged the familiar coastline up the shell islands. When we finally got to our destination it was a great relief to sail under the Causeway’s drawbridge and work our way into the marina, tie up the boat, and start the long walk home on the shell roads. 

No one said a word. We just carried our wet gear, enjoying the fresh air under a pre-dawn sky that was studded with stars.

***

THE HEADLINES:

The Romance of American Activism in “Radical Love” -- William Kirkley’s documentary follows a married couple working on behalf of the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers in the '60s and '70s (New Yorker)

VIDEO: W.H.O. Announces New Team to Study Covid-19 Origins -- The World Health Organization hopes that the new advisory group, which includes scientists from 26 countries, can revive its study of the pandemic’s origins, after previous efforts became bogged down in a political rivalry between China and the United States. (Reuters)

Consumer Prices Jump Again, Presenting a Dilemma for Washington -- Consumer Price Index data from the Labor Department showed that prices kept climbing in September, as supply chain snarls and rising rents fueled rapid inflation. (NYT)


* U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren called for breaking up Amazon.com and Indian retailers demanded a government probe of the company after a Reuters investigation showed the e-commerce giant had copied products and rigged search results in India. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers plans to introduce a bill that would bar Big Tech platforms from favoring their products and services. (Reuters)

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas key witness in Trump’s Justice Department -- The committee said it is seeking records and testimony from Jeffrey Clark, a Trump administration official who sought to deploy resources to support the former president’s false claims of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election. (WP)

Vaccination rates against COVID-19 in the United States have risen by more than 20 percentage points after multiple institutions adopted vaccine requirements, while case numbers and deaths from the virus are down. White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that 77% of eligible Americans had received at least one shot of a vaccine. (Reuters)



Lake Tahoe’s water levels have hit a four-year low after intense winds exacerbated the impacts of California’s drought. (The Guardian)

Could ‘near-record’ rain put an end to fire season? -- Weather forecasters estimate two inches of precipitation will come in from a storm hovering in the Pacific Ocean next week, affecting a swath stretching from the Bay Area to Redding. The coming storm could bring near-record rainfall to replenish water resources in the state. (SFC)

California firefighters took advantage of a break in strong winds to get aircraft aloft and dump retardant on a fast-moving wildfire that was within a half mile of former President Ronald Reagan's ranch. (Reuters)

Roughly 60,000 workers in the film and television industry will go on strike next week if major Hollywood studios do not offer them a satisfying contract before then, the union said. Workers want to see significant pay increases at the bottom end of the wage scale, better compensation for workers on streaming projects, and stronger guarantees on breaks and time off between shifts. [HuffPost]

Walgreens is closing five locations in San Francisco and blames an epidemic of “organized” theft. (Cal Today)

U.S. regulators spelled out long-awaited guidelines aimed at reducing sodium levels in dozens of foods, including condiments, cereals, French fries and potato chips. A majority of the sodium in U.S. diets comes from packaged or restaurant foods — not salt added to meals at home — making it hard for people to make changes on their own. [AP]



The Sacramento City Unified School District voted to impose a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all eligible students and staff members by Nov. 30. (Sacramento Bee)


* UK's Prince William says great minds should focus on saving Earth not space travel (Reuters)


* Crucial U.N. climate talks next month are likely to fall short of the global target for cutting coal, gas and oil emissions, Kerry says. (AP)

‘Moneyball’ Thinking Killed the Stolen Base—but It’s Making a Comeback (WSJ)


Company Hosts Fun Night For Employees To Get Drunk And Complain (The Onion)

***

"As Time Goes By"

Written by Herman Hupfeld
You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man, and man must have his mate
That no one can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man, and man must have his mate
That no one can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by

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